GNU License for Hardware

Kristofer Coward kris at snow.utoronto.ca
Tue Oct 12 04:48:44 UTC 1999


> I have to disagree. I agree with many of Richard's concepts, (although I 
> still don't call it GNU/Linux *G*) but for hardware I have to seriously 
> disagree.

There are already systems (Amiga, iirc) which use the Linux kernel outside
the GNU system.. in proprietary systems even. Regrettably, their claims
that they now use Linux are absolutely correct, and will lead people to
believe that they're using an entire free/open system, instead of just the
free kernel. Until this, GNU/Linux has been easier to abbreviate as simply
Linux, but now that it could be confusing (and potentially damaging to
both the Free Software and Open Source movements) I'll be using GNU/Linux
far more regularly, and suggest you do the same (imagine Microsoft
inserting the Linux kernel into NT, making it even more bloated and
unstable in the process, and completely legitimately selling it as Linux
in order to discredit us).

Kris Coward




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